KUCHING: The Sarawak Ministry of Infrastructure and Port Development (MIPD) and the Sarawak Public Works Department (JKR) must work together to investigate the causes of project delays.
 
According to Sarawak Deputy Premier, Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, there are four terminated projects and 11 that have experienced critical delays.
 
Out of these 15 delayed and terminated projects, he noted that two are funded by state allocations.
 
"We may need to re-evaluate some of the existing processes and procedures. For example, we have defined what constitutes a project experiencing critical delays.
 
"For projects with a completion period of two years, the threshold is 60 days, and exceeding this is considered critical.
 
"For projects taking more than two years, the threshold is 100 days before we begin identifying issues. I feel this duration is too long," he said. 
 
He spoke to officiate the JKR Sarawak Building Information Modelling (BIM) Day 2024 at a prominent hotel here on Monday.
 
Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah further urged JKR to be prepared to meet the challenges of completing projects on time, within budget, and with assured quality and safety.
 
He added that the Sarawak Government has entrusted JKR with projects worth RM1.3 billion for 2025, a 64 per cent increase from the 2024 budget.
 
"If JKR’s performance is unsatisfactory, the department will quickly become irrelevant to its clients, especially with 2026 introducing an outcome-based budget that will assess JKR’s performance," he stressed.
 
At the same event, the MIPD Minister praised JKR’s efforts to implement BIM.
 
He explained that BIM allows stakeholders, including architects, engineers, contractors, and clients, to access project data and updated information throughout project execution.
 
"BIM helps eliminate costly errors and reduces rework. This not only saves costs but also ensures that construction processes run smoothly, and projects are completed on time within the allocated budget," he said.
 
Also present were MIPD Deputy Minister, Datuk Ir. Aidel Lariwoo, JKR Sarawak Director, Ir. Cassidy Morris, and senior JKR officers. -UKASnews